


Goodnight Sweetheart

by Lady_Jane666



Series: Her Father's Daughter [3]
Category: The Walking Dead & Related Fandoms, The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Cancer, Death, F/M, Heavy Angst, One Shot, Prequel, Sad Negan is super sad, have tissues prepared, it's so sad, loss of a spouse, their relationships was beautiful and sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-17
Updated: 2018-02-17
Packaged: 2019-03-20 07:07:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13712490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Jane666/pseuds/Lady_Jane666
Summary: Summery: Set directly before the events of “Her Father’s Daughter”. Negan says goodnight to Lucille, one last time.+This whole fic deals with Lucille's death, if death or cancer is a trigger for you please don't read+





	Goodnight Sweetheart

Goodnight Sweetheart

 

Everything since the moment that Lucille found out that she had cancer felt like a giant blur to Negan. This type of thing happened to other people, not his family. Other guys watch their wives waste away, he wasn’t supposed to. That was not the plan.

The plan was for them to grow old together, to watch Jolene become some hot shot lawyer and to fall asleep one night together and never wake up. It was the dream that he knew his wife held on to as she endured surgeries, seemingly endless rounds of cemo and radiation as the cancer just spread. Unphased by all the efforts to stop it’s invasion.

They had so much hope in the days leading up to the seizure that put his beautiful, compassionate and patient wife in the hospital bed before him. She had more energy than she had in months, she was smiling and laughing. Lucille had even found the energy to cook him his favorite meal the night before. Then that morning as they got up and had coffee Negan could see something was off. When he went to get the paper and mail, that’s when it happened. The only thing that alerted him was the sound of the glass coffee pot shattering on the tile floor.

He knew it that moment it wasn’t good. Hours later he sat by her bedside after dozens of tests had been run waiting for the young doctor to come in and speak to him. Negan felt helpless, he didn’t want to worry his daughter until her knew for sure what his gut told him. They were at the end.

There was as soft knock on the door and young doctor walked in. Negan recognized him as one of the first guys he had coached at football nearly 16 years ago. “Jacob Kline, well I’ll be damned…” Negan stood up and met his former student and player with a handshake.

“Nice to see you Coach, I really wish it was under different circumstances.” Jacob gave a kind smile and gestured for Negan to sit back down next to his wife as the younger man pulled up a chair besides him. “I was on call and saw Lucille’s name on the board, I wanted to take care of her personally…”

Negan gave a half smile and patted Jacob on the knee. “I remember you two had just gotten married the year you took over as JV football coach.” Jacob recalled with a fond smile remembering happier times. “You two had a little girl, you used to call her your assistant… you used to make us give her piggy back rides when you made us run laps.”

Negan smiled softly and looked over at his still sedated wife. “Jolene…”

“Where is she?” Jacob asked softly.

“Collage,” Negan started reaching over and grabbing his wife’s hand. “Columbia… Pre Law..”

The younger man let out a heavy sigh. “You may want to call her Coach, things aren’t good.” He was trying so hard to be kind about delivering the heartbreaking news but Negan saw right through.

“Cut the shit Kline…” Negan snapped.

“The cancer is spreading, it’s an extremely aggressive form and Lucille had to have known she didn’t have much time left. I looked back over her scans and there hasn’t been any sign of shrinkage in the tumors, the ones they removed grew back and spread.” Negan hung his head as the younger man spoke and he buried his face in his hands to hide the tears streaming down his face.

It took him a moment to gain his composure enough to lift his head and speak. “She had been doing so well the last few days, feeling great… happy… so fucking happy.”

Jacob felt horrible seeing the man that he had admired for his strength and composure all those years falling apart before him. He reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder. “It’s not uncommon for those close to the end to get try and rally… but it was false hope and I am so sorry Negan.” The older man choked back a sob and bit his bottom lip. “Call Jolene… tell her it’s time to come say her goodbyes… we will do everything possible to give your family as much time with her as possible and keep Lucille as comfortable as possible so she does not suffer… but we are at the end of her journey and the rest is in God’s hands.”

The two men sat for a sometime in silence, Negan mulling over the news that this really was the end. Jacob got a page and had to excuse himself but promised he would come back and check on them both in a bit. Negan sat holding Lucille’s hand as he got lost in his own thoughts. He couldn’t bring himself to call Jolene, not yet. He wasn’t sure that he could hold it together speaking with her in the moment. Lucille squeezed his hand shaking him from his thoughts as she mustered what little strength she had to wake up and speak. “Negan…” She said softly, her voice was weak and raspy.

Negan nearly jumped up out of his chair at the sound of his wife’s voice. He stood up and perched himself over her fragile frame that seem so small in the large hospital bed. “There’s my girl…” He said softly gently caressing her cheek.

“I’m sorry..” She said softly. “I’m sorry… I should have told you..”

Negan shook he head and hushed her. “Don’t you fucking dare apologize baby… don’t… I am the one who fucked so much up… you were god damn perfect.”  He couldn’t fight the tears any more, they started to fall in a steady stream as his wife reached her shaky hand up to wipe them away.

“You have to be strong now, Jo needs you to be strong for her… I am not gonna be there..” She start as her own tears feel. “You need to make sure she marries a good man, one who will treat her right. Make sure she is happy. Make sure she knows she was always mine… always mine… from the moment I saw her she was my baby..” Her voice was shaky as she spoke and Negan rested his head against her’s.

“I promise… I promise my love…”  

“I wanted to see her grow up and do all those beautiful things she dreamed about. I am never going to watch her walk down across the stage as she graduates, or down the aisle when she gets married… or hold my first grandchild.” The gravity of the situation was hitting them both like a tone of brick. Negan put down the side of the hospital bed and crawled beside his wife as she weakly sobbed into his chest. He felt helpless. There was nothing he could possibly say that would fix this, no apology or flowers he could give her that would make this pain go away.

Negan ran his hand down his wife’s back, “You will see it all… I know you will.” Negan said softly. “You will always be her angel… just like you have been mine.” He rocked her gently in his arms as he continued. “You are our strength, the glue that hold this family together…” He could feel her start to slowly struggle more to breath as he spoke. He glanced down at her and she was looking up at him through hooded eyes. Her left hand, still with her wedding ring on, placed over his heart. Her head nestled in the crook of his neck. “I was a horrible husband… you deserved so much better than me Lucille. I can’t make it up to you now but I fucking promise you that I will not let our girl marry some shit head like me who can’t see the prize he had all along.”

They stayed like that for some time, Lucille had fallen asleep once more in her husband’s arms. Negan exhausted by the ordeal allowed himself to drift off as well, not knowing if he would ever fall asleep holding the woman he loved again. He slumber was short lived when alarms from the monitor started to blare and Lucille struggled to breath in his arms.

Negan’s heart sank to the pit of his stomach as he watched his wife gasp for air in his arms. “Baby… no… not yet baby… please not yet.” He cried frantically a team of nurses and doctors rushed in with a large machine.

One of the nurses, a pretty young blonde woman, gently grabbed Negan by the shoulder. “Sir, Sir… we need you to step out of the room so we can help your wife breathe.” She said in a calm, kind tone. Negan was like a deer in the headlights watching as the dropped the bed down and swarmed his wife with lights and tubes. The nurse ushered him outside the room. “Wait here, we will get you when you can come back in.” She said softly before returning into the room and closing the door.

Negan didn’t know what to do, he felt around in his pockets for his cell phone and pulled it out to call his daughter to let her know she needed to get home because it may already be too late.

It took them nearly an hour to get Lucille situated on the ventilator enough that Negan could return. Once he did he sat by his wife’s bedside, silent lost in his own thoughts. He sat like that well into the evening despite the obvious chaos that was going on in the hospital and beyond it’s walls. It was nearly 10pm when Jacob Kline came running frantically into Lucille’s room.

“Coach you need to leave the hospital right now… it’s getting too dangerous…” The young man was covered in blood and looked to have a bite mark on his left forearm.

Negan looked up and simply said. “I am not leaving my wife…” as he stood up. “She is not going to fucking die alone!” He bellowed at Jacob who just turned with out another word and raced out sight. Negan turned to look out the window. He could see the military setting up some kind of blockade around the hospital. He couldn’t make out much more than that in the low light.

He turned back and looked down at Lucille and just shook his head. “It’s best you are sleep through this shit anyway baby… it looks like everything is going to hell.” He ran his hand across her forehead and let out a heavy sigh. “I hope Jolene is okay, she is driving all the way from New York just to come say goodbye…” He smiled softly hoping her heard his words. “She is such a good kid, it had fuck all to do with me.” He kissed her forehead and put down the rail of  the bed and rested his head next to her hand.

“We are just going to wait for our girl… everything else be damned…” He kissed her fingertips and closed his eyes once more drifting off into a restless slumber.

Around 5 am there was a loud bang from outside that woke Negan who once more raced to the window to see what had caused the noise. As he looked out the window he saw the city in flames. The lights in the hospital flickered and then shut off. The machine that was breathing for Lucille slowly came to halt.

Negan’s eye’s got wide as they filled with tears. “No! FUCKING NO!” He screamed as he watched Lucille’s chest rise and fall with her last breath. “Don’t you fucking dare!” He screamed shaking his wife’s lifeless body thinking that would somehow make her take breath once more. “Baby… No… Lucille…” He cried as took her into his arms as her heart pumped it’s final time. He let out a soul shattering wail as he kissed her cheeks.

“Please… come back… don’t go.” He pleaded as he kissed her face. “I will be a better man… a better husband, I promise baby. Lucille, please…come back.” He held her face against his as he sobbed and rocked her lifeless body. “My love… my only love…” His voice was horse from screaming and his eyes so red with tears.

He crawled into the bed with her, wrapping his arms tightly around her as if that would bring her back to life. “I’m so sorry…” He cried. “So sorry…” He rocked her and pleaded for her to come back for the next few moments.

Then he felt her arm twitch under his and his eyes got wide and he jumped back. “Lucille… baby… “ He looked up and saw her eyes pop open, they were glassy, foggy and looked dead. A low groan escaped deep within her throat as she began to claw at her husband. Negan screamed not comprehending what was going as he flew out of the bed and stumbled backwards knocking an IV pole into the bedside table as he did so with a large crash.

Lucille was now sitting up in bed, struggling against the breathing machine to get towards Negan who was quickly rushing towards the door. Once he flung the door open he saw nearly half dozen other people in the same state as his wife. “What the fuck…” He muttered before hearing a young boy scream.

“I gotta get the fuck out of her. He heard a crash from Lucille’s room and saw that she had knocked the ventilator over and was now out of bed and trying to make her way towards him. Negan shoved a nearby gurney in front of the door before racing down the hall trying to reach the parking garage as fast as he could.

“I gotta get home… I gotta find Jolene…” He kept repeating as ran.


End file.
